Stampeders spoil Lions' comeback with late heroics for 40-26 victory

Defencer Jabar Westerman of the B.C. Lions tries to get a grip on Calgary Stampeders' quarterback Kevin Glenn during Friday's Canadian Football League game at McMahon Stadium in Calgary. The Stampeders scored early and late and won their 12th game of the season.

Photograph by: Jeff McIntosh
, The Canadian Press

CALGARY — The B.C. Lions will face either the Calgary Stampeders or Saskatchewan Roughriders in the Canadian Football League playoffs. Probably both, if they’re lucky, the way it’s going.

For the second consecutive week, the Lions went down to one of their chief West Division rivals, losing by 14 points, as they did last Friday to the Roughriders. This time it was the Stampeders doing the deed, 40-26 Friday at McMahon Stadium.

A win by the Roughriders today against the Edmonton Eskimos would move the Riders to 10-5 and drop the Lions alone into third place at 9-6. The Stampeders, at 12-3, are all but unassailable if the Lions once had hopes on first place.

“There are times you see us driving down the field, and they can’t stop us,” said Lions’ receiver Shawn Gore. “And there are times when we’re not playing at that level. We have the ability. When we play at that level, we’re tough to beat. It’s just that we can’t play at that level consistently.”

Rookie starter Thomas DeMarco captured that thought. The second-year pro started slowly, missing on his first four pass attempts. His first completion went to Manny Arceneaux — for minus-one yards.

And yet, after that humble beginning, DeMarco rallied, as did his team. Down 19-4 in the first half, and trailing by 15 points in the third quarter, DeMarco somehow made the Lions into a factor in a game in which the Stampeders had a couple of opportunities to bury them.

DeMarco’s second touchdown pass of the game — a seven-yarder to Nick Moore — was followed by a toss to Courtney Taylor for a two-point convert that created a 26-26 tie with 8:13 left.

Thereafter, it went downhill again, with Stampeder running back Jon Cornish’s 38-yard run leading to a six-yard touchdown pass from Kevin Glenn to Clifton Smith, a CFL rookie playing in his first game. The Lions were looking for answers on several fronts, and they simply had none for Cornish, who ran for 130 yards on 15 carries and scored on a two-yard touchdown run in the first half.

It was the seventh time Cornish has run for 100 yards in a game this season. With three three starts left, his total is 1,545 — a single-season record for a Canadian running back.

While DeMarco ended up throwing for 301 yards and two touchdowns, his late-game pass intended for Marco Iannuzzi proved disastrous. It was picked off by cornerback Chris Randle and returned 65 yards for a touchdown to seal the victory for the Stampeders.

“It was second-and-long, you’ve just gotta try and make a play, and I got hit,” DeMarco explained. “It’s not like I’m trying to throw it to the other team. It fluttered out there. He makes a play. Hopefully, next time, I’ll make a better decision. I’ll go home and kill myself for the plays we didn’t make, and go from there.”

Now 2-2 as a starter, DeMarco has given the Lions more than credible quarterbacking in the absence of injured starter Travis Lulay, Taylor said.

“He picked it up and made plays when we needed them,” Taylor said. “I don’t care what people say, that’s football. You’re going to have up times and down times, it’s just how you react to them. And he reacted great. He’s grown so much. He’s had four games of live fire now. You can see the improvement. We just wish we had a ‘W’ (win) at the end of it.”

Cornish, who added 35 yards on three receptions, became the all-time, single-season leader in yards from the scrimmage by a Canadian player, surpassing the rushing and pass reception total of 1,830 yards set last year by the Lions’ Andrew Harris.

After a nightmare game last time out against the Roughriders — 10 yards on six carries — Harris was only marginally better against the Stampeders, finishing the game with 31 yards on nine carries — a 3.4 yard average. Unlike Cornish, the blocking at the point of attack wasn’t there to spring him again, despite a week of encouraging practice which promised more.

“I’ve got nothing to say,” Harris said. “As a team we just left some stuff on the field. We just didn’t make plays at crucial times.”

Remarkably, the Lions found themselves down by only eight points at the half, trailing 19-11, despite a wide margin in play and possession by the Stamps.

Kicker Rene Paredes, who had converted 95.3 per cent of his 43 field goal attempts coming into the game, hit from 12, 45, 43 and 19 yards. In the final minute of the half, however, he was wide on a 44-yard attempt and it opened the door a crack for the Lions.

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Defencer Jabar Westerman of the B.C. Lions tries to get a grip on Calgary Stampeders' quarterback Kevin Glenn during Friday's Canadian Football League game at McMahon Stadium in Calgary. The Stampeders scored early and late and won their 12th game of the season.

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